Windmill
by
HawMorFords
Welcome
to Queensland's most found Geocache!
(524 finds
as at 20th November 2011)
This cache is located very close to Queensland's oldest
surviving building.
Take some time and sit a while on the grassy patch near the
windmill and complete the log for this cache... take a moment to
reflect what this area would have looked like in 1828.
We hope you enjoy this marvellous part of Brisbane's
history.
Queensland's oldest surviving building, the Windmill, was
constructed by convicts in 1828 to grind flour and maize meal
as food for the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.
A stone and brick building, it contained two pair of mill
stones - one pair connected to the Windmill sails, the other to a
treadmill outside. The treadmill was used when the Windmill
was under repair, in calm weather, or as a means of punishment for
convicts.
It was demolished after the area was opened up to free settlement
in 1842.
The Windmill fell into disuse and as was converted to a signal
station in 1861. It was also used as a fire look-out and for
pioneer radio and television broadcasting experiments in the 1920's
- 1940's.
The extant copper time-ball was dropped regularly from 1895 to
1930 at 1pm.
Of the adjacent Reservoirs, the smaller was built in 1871 in
association with the Enoggera Dam Water Supply Works. This
was the first major municipal engineering undertaking in
Queensland, servicing Queen, George and Edward Streets. The
second larger structure was completed in 1882.
The Reservoirs are brick, box-form structures with
subterranean, arched, baffle walls. The timber and corrugated
iron roofs are later additions.
Happy Hunting.